James Peacock on a desperately drab affair which all the pink balls and black bats in the world would not have livened up.

There were no left-handed swipes or anything resembling Kevin Pietersen’s southpaw slogs here last night. No controversy, either; minimal excitement and a predictable result: just another cog in the Twenty20 revolution.

It says much when the most entertaining action came after the majority of the 5,200 crowd had dispersed and a group of youngsters dressed as lifeguards, the Incredible Hulk, Bananaman, the gay policeman from the Village People and a sombre and sober-looking man in a sombrero were among those who set up their own mini-game on the outfield.

There was more of an atmosphere, especially when Mr Incredible came on from the Diglis End. But these colourful characters could not be heard during the ‘proper’ match, perhaps an indication that the decision to prohibit supporters from bringing their own alcohol into Twenty20 games is a miscalculation.

No one wants louts, but a bit of life wouldn’t have gone amiss; the absence of humourous crowd involvement was so evident - not that the home support had much to cheer, mind you.

It was a sobering experience for Worcestershire, whose wayward bowling and abysmal fielding suggested their players had spent most of the afternoon on the drink. Director-of cricket Steve Rhodes pulled no punches afterwards.

He said: "We have had some harsh words in the dressing room because the players deserved it. If you put in fielding performances like that, you lose.

"It’s about time we looked in the mirror and did something about it. The one thing I do have in there is characters and I am sure they will bounce back.

"We bowled nine wides [seven, actually], which was very disappointing. In a tight game, that is not good enough. We had a score we could win with but we had to field and bowl well - but we didn’t do that."

The result was not all about Worcestershire’s failures, however. Warwickshire - in particular Neil Carter and Jonathan Trott - were very good.

Director of cricket Ashley Giles said: "We played smart cricket and that’s what we have emphasised throughout this competition. We have some good players at the top of the order but not big hitters so we try to play the percentages. If we do that, we can have success.

"The bowling performance set up the victory. We bowled to plans and we were good in the field.

"We have asked the players to show character. Everything is not fine and dandy now, we still have a lot of work to do - but we are going the right way.

"Allan Donald said before the game that if we can improve by five per cent in each match we will be playing some very good cricket by the end of the competition."

This was not a good advert for Twenty20 cricket; even Allen Stanford’s millions and all the black bats and pink balls in the world would have struggled to liven up a drab affair. Cheerleaders need to be given some serious thought; or Ten10 cricket, perhaps, played with rounders bats and no pads.

It had all started brightly enough with a brief cameo from Graeme Hick, all orthodox strokes through cover and third man, which had promised much - but once he had gone the home innings petered out as the rest of the batsmen failed to deliver the fireworks that have become synonymous with this competition.

Once Hick had gone, duped by a fine slower ball from the impressive Carter, Vikram Solanki led heroically for a run-a-ball half century but the Royals needed a super-hero. If only Bananaman and Mr Incredible had put their hands up, or at least let themselves be known as spectators.